5 latest things we know about Comet ISON

By Amanda Barnett, CNN

Updated 6:10 AM ET, Fri December 6, 2013

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Photos:Comet ISON

Comet ISON – Comet ISON appears as a white smear heading up and away from the sun on Thursday, November 28. Scientists initially thought the comet had been disintegrated by the sun, but images suggest a small nucleus may still be intact.

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Photos:Comet ISON

Comet ISON – Comet ISON is seen, top left, after its close encounter with the sun on November 28. In this picture, called a coronagraph, the bright light of the sun is blocked so the structures around it are visible.

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Photos:Comet ISON

Comet ISON – Comet ISON moves close to the sun at 10:51 a.m. ET on November 28.

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Photos:Comet ISON

Comet ISON – Comet ISON's position is seen near the sun at 9:30 a.m. ET on November 28. This composite image comes from NASA and the European Space Agency.

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Photos:Comet ISON

Comet ISON – Comet ISON is seen early on Wednesday, November 27.

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Photos:Comet ISON

Comet ISON – Comet ISON shines brightly on the morning of November 19. The comet was discovered by Russian astronomers Vitali Nevski and Artyom Novichonok in September 2012. It was named after their night-sky survey program, the International Scientific Optical Network.

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Photos:Comet ISON

Comet ISON – Comet ISON, right of center in the frame and distinguishable by it's tail, is seen in this photo taken by a crew member aboard the International Space Station on Saturday, November 23.

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Photos:Comet ISON

Comet ISON – Comet ISON, with Comet Encke ahead, is pictured along with Mercury and Earth in this image taken by NASA's solar-observing STEREO spacecraft on Friday, November 22.

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Photos:Comet ISON

Comet ISON – Comet ISON is seen through blue and red filters on November 2.

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Photos:Comet ISON

Comet ISON – A series of photos shows how Comet ISON changed its appearance as it approached the sun.

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Photos:Comet ISON

Comet ISON – Comet ISON, which was brightening as it approached the sun, is shown here on October 25.

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Photos:Comet ISON

Comet ISON – Despite the very bright full moon on October 20, Comet ISON was showing a long tail.

Comet ISON – The Hubble Space Telescope took this picture of Comet ISON on April 10, when the comet was slightly closer than Jupiter's orbit, or about 386 million miles from the sun.

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Story highlights

NASA telescopes are hunting ISON's remnants

A chunk of the comet may have survived

Comet-watchers are not giving up on ISON

In case you missed it, a comet grazed the sun on Thanksgiving Day. Expectations had been high that Comet ISON would survive this close encounter, swing around the sun and put on a fantastic sky show. It was hoped it might even become a Great Comet, with massive tails visible to the naked eye.

But something really bad happened and now it looks like ISON may be just dust in the solar wind (the sun was uninjured, FYI). Here's what we know now about ISON:

1. Is ISON dead?

Well, maybe. After the comet flew about 730,000 miles above the sun's surface, it started fading in images taken by NASA spacecraft. Things got so bad that Karl Battams, an astrophysicist with the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory and one of ISON's top fans, er -- chief observers -- wrote an obit for the comet.

Despite the eulogy, Battams said we have to wait for the Hubble Space Telescope or other telescopes to confirm ISON's fate. "It seems unlikely at this stage that anything of significant size remains but Hubble observations would help clear that up," Battams told CNN in an e-mail.

NASA also hinted there may be a bit of hope for ISON in its latest update posted online Wednesday. The agency said it will use space telescopes to monitor ISON for the next several weeks because it's possible that dust is hiding a new, smaller version of it.

"Most agree that up to 90% of ISON was destroyed, leaving approximately 10% of the comet intact. If previous sungrazing comets are any guides, there may be a sizeable piece of comet nucleus left. At this point, though, scientists are waiting for a variety of telescopes to make observations before the status of Comet ISON can be confirmed."

2. What do we call ISON now?

"I don't think there is an official term yet," Battams said. "I have been referring to it as a comet remnant, and that seems pretty appropriate."

3. ISON wasn't a flop.

Okay, it won't be a "Great Comet" or the "Comet of the Century." But ISON did become a social media superstar and it gave scientists tons of data. "It's disappointing that we didn't get a spectacular naked-eye comet," Matthew Knight of Comet ISON Observing Campaign said in a NASA science article. "But in other ways I think Comet ISON was a huge success. The way people connected with Comet ISON via social media was phenomenal; our Comet ISON Observing Campaign website earned well over a million hits; and I had trouble downloading images near perihelion because NASA's servers were swamped.

ISON's fate has become a near obsession for a special Facebook group set up by physicist and astronomer Padma Yanamandra-Fisher with the Space Science Institute and the ISON observing campaign. More than 300 members have been tracking the comet and sharing amazing pictures. Many are still looking for ISON's remains and they aren't ready to declare it dead.

"I think the evidence shows that something catastrophic happened to the comet, but I don't think anyone is 100% sure," said Yanamandra-Fisher. "Ground-based observations and orbiting telescopic observations, such as Hubble Space Telescope, later in December are important."

5. But wait, there's more!

Believe it or not, ISON is not the only comet! "There are several comets to enjoy right now," Battams says. He likes Comet Lovejoy (discovered by Australian amateur astronomer Terry Lovejoy), Comet Encke and Comet LINEAR.

"The bottom line is that there are several comets still visible, and even when the bright comets have gone, there will always be more. The night sky is full of wonderful things to observe, too, so people absolutely should get outside and explore the skies!" Battams said.

If you're ready to go comet-hunting, here are some websites that ISON observers say might help: